1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an antiseptic clean system adapted to destruct germs and other microorganisms brought into a room both by the room itself and by means of an air conditioner installed in the room.
2. Prior Art
Conventional techniques employed in clean systems comprising an air conditioner include arranging a germicidal lamp within the air conditioner main body to destruct germs adhering to the filter of the air conditioner or drifting in the air and/or inhibit the reproduction of germs within the system and utilizing antiseptic filters made of one or more than one antiseptic materials, which are a relatively new technological development. While these techniques are effective to a certain extent against germs of various types, viruses can easily pass through the filter and be blown into the room where the air conditioner is installed so that clean systems employing such techniques are not satisfactorily suited for air conditioners to be installed in operating rooms (clean rooms) in hospitals because of the poor sterilizing effect of the techniques.
This will be described in greater detail by referring to FIG. 6 of the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 6 shows part of a clean room of a known type in lateral cross section, employing a so-called type clean system and comprising one or more than one air cleaners installed within the room that do not require a duct system which is normally provided with a number of ducts having a large cross section and arranged under the ceiling or the floor of the room. Thus, such a line type clean system is advantageous in that it does not occupy a large space within the room.
The clean room 1 comprises walls, a ceiling and a floor made of materials that produce little or no dirt and any gaps that may be found within the room are sealed by means of a sealing material containing silicon so that the room may be held under a hermetically sealed condition.
One or more than one air cleaners 2 are arranged on some of the walls of the room 1 and each of the air cleaners 2 comprises a prefilter 20 and a filter 21 designed to trap dirt and microorganisms passing therethrough. Each air cleaner 2 also comprises a fan 22 for forcibly circulating air within the room and an air conditioner 23.
In FIG. 6, arrows indicate how air circulates within the room 1. Air that can contain dirt is taken into the air cleaners 2 arranged within the room 2 through the bottoms thereof so that dirt are mostly caught by the prefilters 20. Thereafter, air is cleaned as it passes through the air conditioners 23, the fans 22 and the filters 21 before it is returned into the room 1 through a clean air feed unit 24 arranged under the ceiling.
The filters can catch drifting microorganisms including pathogenic microbes, fungi, spores and eumycetes. On the other hand, microorganism that have fallen onto the panels of the system are killed by germicidal lamps or ozone.
Of clean rooms of the above described type, so-called bio-clean rooms have a particularly rigorous control system against germs for keeping the room under control for cleanness by regularly counting the number of fallen microorganisms and cleansing the inside of the room 1.
Problems to be solved by the invention
Dirt that are brought into a clean room by way of human bodies and pieces of equipment can be satisfactorily removed by the prefilters and the filters of a line type clean system.
However, microorganisms cannot be wiped out by such a system.
With a sterilizing system of the above described type comprising filters, germs can be reproduced and multiplied on the rear side of the filter and then turned back into the room way of the air cleaners.
Filters haveing a sterilizing effect may be used for such a system in order to eliminate the above problem. However, filters cannot satisfactorily kill germs adhering to the filters and the backsides and the gaps of the pieces of equipment installed in the room.
Additionally, the technique of sterilizing and cleansing the inside of a room as described above is costly and cumbersome and sterilizers used with such a technique is harmful to the human body and take considerable time until they become effective. This means that, once the room that may be an operating room is sterilized and cleansed with such a technique, it needs to be kept off limits for a given period of time. Still additionally, the operation of sterilization and cleansing needs to be perodically repeated in order to constantly keep the room clean, be it an operating room or not, making the entire operation rather costly.
In view of the above technological problems, it is therefore an object of the invention to provide a clean system that can sterilize germs and other microorganisms brought into a room in a simple manner on a stable basis for a long perod of time without using the operation of sterilization and cleansing.